Earthdate 2406-05-06 11:45 UTC

When it comes to laboratory-created life, one of the first questions we ask is about the length of the lifespan. At this point, One of Twelve and Two of Twelve are nearly five years old, but matured to the point that they have the knowledge and body of an adult human close to twenty-five years old, with the bulk of that maturation taking place within the first few months of existence. Within carbon-based humanoid species, the determinator for lifespan is a telomere, the nucleotide sequence that caps the end of DNA strands. In layman’s terms, these shorten each time a cell divides. When a person’s cells are no longer able to divide, the cells will die, increasing the likelihood of that person’s death.

What has been confounding me for the past year is that One and Two both have very short telomeres. Their scientifically calculated lifespans should be about two years, so they have already lived twice their life expectancy. Short telomeres are also associated with cancers, which is very likely an infliction the Borg wish to prevent in their drones, and actively do so with nanoprobes. My belief, based on my research in this area combined with recent discoveries about their nanoprobes, is that the purpose of these short telomeres is so the creations of Project [REDACTED] had a shelf life, a sort of guarantee to the Borg Collective that they would eventually die naturally if the Borg Collective lost control.

The problem then, was maintaining telomere length throughout the entire lifespan, as originally planned by the Borg Collective. Generally, an enzyme called telomerase can repair telomeres, but One and Two lack this in any significant quantity. The answer, it seems resides once again in their nanoprobes, which are technically too large to operate except from outside the cellular structures. These seem to be able to manufacture and insert into the cell nucleases that specifically target and lengthen the telomeres. One and Two are no longer living out their natural lifespans. Instead, they are being kept alive by nanoprobe functions that could [REDACTED].

12:00 UTC—Note, Tuyo Allaron, Adm, Starfleet Intelligence
Due to the sensitive topic, the rest of this report has been redacted. Please submit valid requests for this report through Starfleet Intelligence’s Task Force Omega department.